Systems for synchronizing optical and electronic clocks have been formed in a variety of architectures. Conventionally, these architectures have been implemented with transistors. For example, one common implementation uses a conventional optical detector in combination with a number of transistors. However, there are several disadvantages associated with using transistors to implement a synchronization system.
First of all, devices used in digital circuits are becoming smaller and smaller. As these devices decrease in size, quantum mechanical effects begin to appear. The electrical properties of conventional transistors may be altered in an unacceptable way by these quantum mechanical effects. Secondly, a synchronization system implemented with transistors is limited by the switching speed of the transistors, which may be too slow for some applications.